ESPN Bubble Watch
Big East Conference
Locks
Teams that should be in: Xavier
Work left to do: St. John's
We're used to getting tweets from fans of major conference No. 1-seed candidates complaining that Gonzaga "hasn't played anybody." That's silly enough. You know what's even worse? This week, we heard this argument applied to Villanova. Seriously? Have you people not seen the 2014-15 Big East? Case in point -- and speaking of putting that logo in -- today brings not one but two fresh Big East locks. Butler and Providence have been on the verge for weeks. Now we make it official. Of the two, Providence has the better resume at the high end -- a top-25 RPI, top-10 schedule, with wins over Notre Dame (neutral court), Butler (away) and Georgetown (twice). The Bulldogs' numbers aren't quite that pristine, and they don't have as many impressive wins, but they did beat North Carolina on a neutral floor, and their lack of bad losses -- Providence lost to Boston College and (somehow) Brown in the same week in early December -- balances things out. In any case, both teams are currently in the No. 6-seed area with two games to play before they meet in Providence for the regular-season finale. Neither team is missing the tournament. And, with Xavier close and St. John's getting closer, the Big East looks like a six-bid league. If Seton Hall hadn't imploded, that would have been seven. That's the league Villanova is dominating. Come on, people. Keep up.
Xavier [18-11 (8-8), RPI: 30, SOS: 25] All of our "Xavier is so wacky!" jokes tend to fall flat (as if they didn't already) when the Musketeers are playing one-possession games, like Monday's 58-57 loss at St. John's or last weeks' 59-57 win at Cincinnati, because, duh, right? One-possession games tend to produce coin-flip results. We preferred the wackier days of late January, when the Musketeers followed up a road win at Georgetown with back-to-back losses to Seton Hall and Creighton. These days, Chris Mack's team looks much more solid, both on the court and with respect to their NCAA tournament seed. And yes, we said "seed." This is no longer a real bubble team, at least for the moment.
St. John's [19-9 (8-7), RPI: 31, SOS: 39] On Feb. 3, Butler manhandled St. John's in Hinkle Fieldhouse, dropping the Red Storm to 3-6 in Big East play. The end of the Red Storm's once-promising season -- and possibly Steve Lavin's tenure -- felt all but copy edited. The early hype. The mysterious conference decline. The long, slow, agonizing limp to the finish. Less than a month later, the script has officially been flipped. After Monday's win over Xavier, St. John's has won five of its past six, including two wins over Xavier. With a home game against Georgetown on Saturday, D'Angelo Harrison & Co. have a chance to really firm this thing up -- if not seal it all together -- at the best possible moment. It might not be "Hoosiers," but it's been a great little turnaround.
This post was edited on 2/27 1:37 PM by Halldan1
Big East Conference
Locks
Teams that should be in: Xavier
Work left to do: St. John's
We're used to getting tweets from fans of major conference No. 1-seed candidates complaining that Gonzaga "hasn't played anybody." That's silly enough. You know what's even worse? This week, we heard this argument applied to Villanova. Seriously? Have you people not seen the 2014-15 Big East? Case in point -- and speaking of putting that logo in -- today brings not one but two fresh Big East locks. Butler and Providence have been on the verge for weeks. Now we make it official. Of the two, Providence has the better resume at the high end -- a top-25 RPI, top-10 schedule, with wins over Notre Dame (neutral court), Butler (away) and Georgetown (twice). The Bulldogs' numbers aren't quite that pristine, and they don't have as many impressive wins, but they did beat North Carolina on a neutral floor, and their lack of bad losses -- Providence lost to Boston College and (somehow) Brown in the same week in early December -- balances things out. In any case, both teams are currently in the No. 6-seed area with two games to play before they meet in Providence for the regular-season finale. Neither team is missing the tournament. And, with Xavier close and St. John's getting closer, the Big East looks like a six-bid league. If Seton Hall hadn't imploded, that would have been seven. That's the league Villanova is dominating. Come on, people. Keep up.
Xavier [18-11 (8-8), RPI: 30, SOS: 25] All of our "Xavier is so wacky!" jokes tend to fall flat (as if they didn't already) when the Musketeers are playing one-possession games, like Monday's 58-57 loss at St. John's or last weeks' 59-57 win at Cincinnati, because, duh, right? One-possession games tend to produce coin-flip results. We preferred the wackier days of late January, when the Musketeers followed up a road win at Georgetown with back-to-back losses to Seton Hall and Creighton. These days, Chris Mack's team looks much more solid, both on the court and with respect to their NCAA tournament seed. And yes, we said "seed." This is no longer a real bubble team, at least for the moment.
St. John's [19-9 (8-7), RPI: 31, SOS: 39] On Feb. 3, Butler manhandled St. John's in Hinkle Fieldhouse, dropping the Red Storm to 3-6 in Big East play. The end of the Red Storm's once-promising season -- and possibly Steve Lavin's tenure -- felt all but copy edited. The early hype. The mysterious conference decline. The long, slow, agonizing limp to the finish. Less than a month later, the script has officially been flipped. After Monday's win over Xavier, St. John's has won five of its past six, including two wins over Xavier. With a home game against Georgetown on Saturday, D'Angelo Harrison & Co. have a chance to really firm this thing up -- if not seal it all together -- at the best possible moment. It might not be "Hoosiers," but it's been a great little turnaround.
This post was edited on 2/27 1:37 PM by Halldan1
